Most people who are fans of anime, manga, comics and film will already know what the MCM expo is, so I won’t give you a long explanation of what it is. Basically, this is a weekend event held at the ExCel Centre in London twice a year and it’s a honey pot for geeks, cosplayers and collectors. I had not been to one for a long time but, seeing how I was 20 minutes away on the tube, it seemed crazy not to go.

Apparently my blog gives me more sway than I’d imagined because, when I went to the press office to arrange interviewing one of the guests, I was given a free press pass! FREE! I saved £16 and was mingling with the stars… sort of. I got to sit on TWO interview panels. I’ll get to that in a bit…

Here is a photo of my business cards! I gave away a good number that day.

The usual suspects were in the exhibition hall; media groups such as Manga Entertainment and gaming groups like Tecmo Koei. Incidentally, I went to one of Tecmo Koei’s launch nights a few years back for the release of Ninja Gaiden 3 game but that’s a different story! I’m not one for shopping at these events but I came across a truly unique stall that’s worth a mention: Nanairononiji. A lovely Japanese couple were selling prints of samurai, geisha and so on. I bought two, then came back with two friends who then bought some prints… and was given a discount when I bought my next one! £25 well spent!

Anyway, the real reason I had the press pass was so that I could sit in on the guest interview panels. The first one was with popular American anime and video game voice actor Vic Mignogna, best known for the role of Edward Elric in Full Metal Alchemist. Whilst everyone else seemed to have professional cameras on tripods, I felt like the imposter with my standard camera and camera phone. Here is the interview below, although unfortunately about 5 minutes are lost because I switched between the two cameras when the memory ran out. I didn’t ask any of my own planned questions because I was too polite to interrupt anyone but everyone else got the important questions in about Vic’s career as a voice actor. Enjoy the video!

The second interview panel I sat on was the Torchwood one! Of course, my Japan blog didn’t give me a proper reason to sit on this panel but I felt I might as well make the most of my press pass. This interview is split into two because it was much longer and is unfortunately jittery as I am not a professional camera operator. Maybe I should consider hiring a cameraman…

Click here for parts 1 and 2 of the Torchwood panel. Very entertaining!

All in all, the expo was made excellent by my press pass! I had fun showing it off in front of my friends. The highlight would have to be riding in a lift with all the people I interviewed but, of course, it would have been boring had I not had friends to share it with.

Final thoughts

Next week’s blog will return to the regular format but week 14 will be another review of the Doki Doki Festival in Manchester! Hopefully I will see a number of you there – look out for the girl handing out business cards.

Hopefully you’ll have noticed that I’ve spruced up the website. Whilst I still can’t get dropdown menus for some reason, all of the side menus on the homepage have gone, making for easier page scrolling. For a complete list of all the weekly features, check out the ‘of the week’ list tab. I’ve also added a new monthly feature – the book of the month!